


Story of the Floating Turtle Island

by palmtreelights



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers R.P.M., Power Rangers Wild Force
Genre: Dimension Travel, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-10
Updated: 2015-06-10
Packaged: 2018-04-03 20:32:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4114023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/palmtreelights/pseuds/palmtreelights
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death and resurrection have unexpected side effects, it turns out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Story of the Floating Turtle Island

**Author's Note:**

  * For [VampirePaladin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampirePaladin/gifts).



Death and resurrection have unexpected side effects, it turns out.  
  
Dr. K had puzzled over the matter for days, eventually stating that the only explanation for this apparent and crude form of inter-dimensional travel was "another unexplained and unexplored effect of biofield manipulation, whether accidental or intentional," and in the end had decided to do what is possibly the least and most sensible thing all at once: she'd handed Gem and Gemma their morphers.  
  
"I want you to be safe wherever it is you go," she says to them. "And, if I can get any data about your condition from them, all the better."  
  
The morpher feels good on Gemma's wrist, familiar and safe, a part of her she hadn't realized she'd missed. In the days that follow her getting it back, she wonders if it's the the cure to their little problem. If maybe, if she morphs, it'll send her somewhere new, somewhere of her choosing.  
  
Then one morning she gets out of bed, and her skin tingles with chilly static that lifts her from her seat on her mattress. She has about three seconds to look around and wish she weren't in pajamas before the world around her shifts in a brief fit of vertigo. Taking a deep breath, she holds her head in her hands until it passes, as quickly as it came, and her surroundings come into focus.  
  
Her feet find the ground again in a park with a manmade lake. The grass is springy and soft under her bare feet; she curls her toes into it, savoring the sensation. It's a mild day with a bright blue sky. She thinks of doing cartwheels and laughing with her face to the sun.  
  
A scream cuts through her plans.  
  
As people flee from the source of the commotion, Gemma runs towards it, instincts and training kicking in so that her every move is effortless and precise. She doesn't recognize the shadowy creatures scaring people off picnic blankets and playground equipment, but she knows them, somehow, knows their purpose and their type. It's the first time her Travels-with-a-capital-T have taken her to a place with problems she's so used to seeing and versed in handling.  
  
Right place, right time, she thinks with a smug grin.  
  
She runs right into the thick of it, punching, kicking, and dodging with ease. Improvised dancing, she remembers Summer saying it looks like, because Gemma gives herself fully to the task. The enemies surround her, but she is not afraid. Spinning, striking, she's lost in the motion until a sharp voice cries out, "Hey!"  
  
Gemma and the creatures stop and turn to face the voice's source: a girl in a white jacket, short but imposing as she waits for their attention.  
  
"Pick on someone who didn't just roll out of bed!" she continues, shifting into a graceful, grounded stance.  
  
Gemma laughs out loud, the sound swallowed by the battle cries of the beings around her as they rush for the girl. Laughing again, she follows them and fights her way to the stranger.  
  
"Get to safety!" says the girl in white.  
  
"And miss the fun?" Gemma whoops as she kicks an enemy's legs out from under them. "No way!"  
  
The girl looks confused for only a second, then rejoins the fight. Between the two of them, it only takes them half a minute to knock them all down. They disappear when they all stop moving, barely leaving imprints in the grass. Gemma thinks to ask the girl where they've gone, but another girl wearing a similar jacket in yellow runs over to them.  
  
"The guys just took out the monster," says this new girl.  
  
"Already?" The girl in white turns to face the newcomer. _Guardian of the Earth_ , the back of her jacket reads. _Noble Tiger_. "Huh. Slow week."  
  
"Who's—" begins the girl in yellow, nodding toward Gemma.  
  
"I don't know, but she sure can fight." Noble Tiger turns again, smiling. "My name is Alyssa, and this is Taylor."  
  
"I'm Gemma. I like your jacket!"  
  
Alyssa beams. "Thanks."  
  
"Why are you in PJs?" asks Taylor.  
  
"Oh." Gemma glances down at them, white with grey pinstripes, a pale imitation of her color. "I just got out of bed, and then–" Can she tell them? What would Dr. K have her do? Play it safe, probably.  
  
But Alyssa just fought Grinder-like beings with her, and Taylor just mentioned teammates and a monster. Gemma may come from a place with only one city, but these facts can only mean one thing, and that means they can be trusted.  
  
"Well," she says, shrugging, "I just dropped in. Literally! On my feet this time, at least."  
  
Taylor still looks suspicious of her. No, that isn't true. She looks even more suspicious than before.  
  
"Maybe we should head back now," she tells Alyssa.  
  
"Sure." Alyssa follows her gaze, which is still trained on Gemma. "Are you going to be okay heading home?"  
  
"Um… I'm not sure. I don't exactly know how to get back." She scratches her wrist beneath her morpher. Maybe morphing will trigger whatever it was brought her here in the first place. Well, assuming she even can morph wherever this is.  
  
"Maybe we can help," says Alyssa. Her smile is warm and sincere. "Do you know your address?"  
  
Giving a nervous chuckle, Gemma looks from Alyssa to Taylor and back. "Corinth City. Have you heard of it?"  
  
"I've heard of ancient Corinth," says Taylor, frowning, "but not the modern Corinth."  
  
"I'm not sure we can take you back to Greece. Unless..." Alyssa turns to Taylor. "Can you fly her there?"  
  
"Well— at least in theory—"  
  
"I'm not from Greece," Gemma interrupts.  
  
Alyssa frowns. "Okay, maybe another state?"  
  
"I don't know," Gemma admits with a smile and a shrug. "The truth is that as soon as I woke up, I disappeared from wherever I was and just landed here."

For a while, Alyssa and Taylor are silent. Gemma tries not to stare—that makes people uncomfortable, or so Dillon told her once, and she’d only been reading over his shoulder that time!—but she can’t help it. They’re Rangers, she’s sure of it. Where are their morphers? Are those jackets part of being on the team? Where are the others?

Do they like explosions?

"What’s that?" asks Taylor, stopping Gemma’s train of thought. She is pointing at Gemma’s wrist.

"This?" Gemma lifts her wrist. "It’s my morpher."

The girls’ eyes go wide.

"You’re a Power Ranger?" asks Alyssa.

Gemma nods. "RPM! Have you heard of us?"

“No,” says Taylor, “and I get the feeling Time Force would’ve told us about you.”

“Why don’t we go talk to Princess Shayla?” suggests Alyssa, cutting Gemma off before she can ask the question she’d only just opened her mouth to ask. “We’ll be safer on the Animarium. We don’t want anyone overhearing us talk about Ranger stuff.”

“Why not?” asks Gemma, frowning and tilting her head to one side.

“We’ll tell you on the way,” says Taylor. “Follow us.”

 

* * *

 

“This is _so cool!!!_ ”

Princess Shayla’s laugh fills the air like music, and Gemma can’t help but twirl by the sacred pond. They’re on a floating island shaped like a turtle, where sentient zords rest and play, awaiting the call to battle. Carved into the stone temple—their base is a _temple!_ —she sees a shark like Ziggy’s zord and two bears like Summer’s zord, and a wolf like Dillon’s, and a lion like Flynn’s. Dr. K’s zords are cool, yes, but these zords are _alive_ , connected to the earth and the Ranger who holds their crystal.

“Dr. K would _love_ this!” Gemma tells them as she turns to face Princess Shayla.

“I’m sure I’d love to meet her,” says the Princess, grinning.

Her eyes are warm and kind, like a mother, though Gemma isn’t sure where that thought comes from, since she doesn’t remember her and Gem’s parents. She completely gets why these Rangers follow her. She is wisdom and serenity and boundless love, a sharp contrast to Dr. K. Still, Gemma adores her friend, understands why she is the way she is, wishes that she and Gem and everyone still alive will be okay someday, after all they’ve been through.

Here, wherever this place is, they could begin to heal. Gemma is sure of it. But how did she get here, and will she ever be able to come back?

“She’d like to meet you, too,” Gemma tells her, voice soft. She swallows against the tightness in her throat. “Um—so, do you know where I am? Or where I’m from? I only know Corinth City. The rest of the world was destroyed. We helped to save it, but there’s still only Corinth, as far as anybody knows.”

“I don’t think anyone knows about her team,” Taylor adds. “If they did, Gemma’s Red would’ve been called to help Cole and the others.”

“Yes, that’s true.” Princess Shayla lifts a hand to her chin. “But, you know… sometimes I have such terrible dreams when I’m sleeping in the pond. Most times, it’s because I’m worried about you all, and about the Earth. But sometimes… Sometimes I see the world in ruins, and fire everywhere, and endless stretches of desert—”

“The wastelands!” Gemma interjects, nodding fervently. “That’s exactly what everything outside the dome looks like!”

“What does all of this mean, Princess Shayla?” Alyssa asks. “Are you seeing the future?”

“I don’t think so,” says Princess Shayla. “Time Force monitors the time stream. Gemma, may I see your morpher?”

Gemma cups her morpher with her hand, biting her lips. “I don’t want to take it off.”

Princess Shayla nods, smiling. “That’s fine.” She goes to Gemma and takes her hand, lifting it to eye level. “It’s remarkable. Its connection to the Power is as strong as my Wild Force’s growl phones.”

“What’s ‘the Power’?” asks Gemma. “My morpher’s supposed to work with the biofield, not ‘the Power’.”

“You must call it something different in your world.”

“ _World_?” asks Taylor. “This is too weird.”

“We’re on a floating island,” says Gemma, smiling wide. “A turtle island, like in a fairy tale. That’s not weird?”

Taylor opens her mouth to protest, but no sound comes out. Her cheeks turn pink, and she huffs, shutting her mouth and crossing her arms.

Next to her, Alyssa giggles.

“I like you all,” Gemma says as Princess Shayla releases her hand. “My friends would like you, too. It’s so pretty here, and the whole world is alive, and you have big, big animal zords that I bet are _so cool_ and _so much fun to pilot_!”

“But?” ventures Alyssa, her gaze gentle, like Princess Shayla’s.

Gemma feels like a little child, and even though it’s strange, she’s happy. “I—”

The water in the pond shoots up like a geyser. The girls turn to it, and Gemma knows at once that it’s their version of an alarm.

“What a cool warning system!”

“Cole and the others need your help,” says Princess Shayla. “Gemma, would you be willing to give us a hand?”

Smirking, Gemma nods. “It’s boom time.”

 

* * *

 

When they arrive, Red, Blue, and Black have already morphed. Taylor and Alyssa follow suit, and after a moment of hesitation, Gemma does, too. This ‘Power’ must be the same as the biofield after all, because the rush of energy she feels is the same as it is back home. Morphing doesn’t take her back to Corinth, but that’s good, in this case. She’s here to fight.

Drawing her dagger, she charges into the fray with the others.

It’s hard at first to follow them, since she isn’t familiar with their dynamic in battle, but she watches more, listening hard, and within half a minute, she’s following their Red’s lead, delivering slash after slash.

Alyssa strikes the monster with her baton, sending it reeling towards Gemma as it loses its balance, and she knocks it back with a firm kick. The team combines weapons while the monster is swaying. It takes them only a few seconds, but it’s enough for the monster to regain its balance and pull its arm back for an attack.

“No way,” says Gemma, and she runs for it, leaping to clutch its arm and throw it off balance again.

“Gemma, move out of the way!” cries Taylor.

“No way!” Gemma repeats. “Take the shot!” Tugging on the monster’s arm, she nods at the team. Taylor glances at Alyssa, then at the others. Are they talking amongst themselves at a time like this? “ _Hurry_! Trust me!”

She sees Red nod. They take their stances, and in the split second before they shoot, Gemma jumps out of the way. She rolls when she lands. The ground shakes with the explosion, and Gemma laughs even after she’s come to a stop and demorphed.

The team comes to her, concern creasing their brows.

“ _Boom_ ,” she tells them, chuckling. “That was so much fun!”

Sighing, Taylor shakes her head. “You’re no better than Cole.”

“Hey!” protests the boy with the bandana as the others laugh.

Taylor helps her up. Gemma sways a little, and Alyssa comes to her other side. “Let me check and see if you’re hurt.”

“No, I’m fine, I—” Gemma’s breath catches as her skin starts to tingle. Looking up at her new friends, she smiles. “I’m going home.”

The boys exchange glances with one another, while Taylor and Alyssa smile back at her.

“We’ll miss you, you daredevil,” says Alyssa.

“I’ll miss you, too,” says Gemma, and she’s surprised by how true that really is, how the feeling steals her voice away so that her words come out barely above a whisper.

The last thing she sees before she shuts her eyes and trusts her balance to this world’s Yellow and White is the kindness in their eyes.

Then she’s in her room again, falling on the floor with a thud, breathless from the fight.

For a while, she lies there, catching her breath and trying to figure out why she wants to cry so badly. Then Dr. K comes in, Summer and Gem behind her, and she’s firing off questions about what happened and if Gemma is able to tell how long she feels she was gone this time.

It’s Summer’s gaze that snaps Gemma out of it, so much like Taylor’s had been in the end. Calm compassion—is there a word for that? She’ll have to make one up sometime.

“I was on a floating turtle island,” says Gemma as Gem helps her sit up. “It was so beautiful.”

That stills the flurry of movement, quiets their immediate concern. Crouching in front of her, Summer gives her a faint smile. “Do you know that story? Andrews used to tell me a story about a place like that when I was little.”

Gemma shakes her head. “Could you tell it to me?”

“Of course.” Summer’s smile widens. “I’ll tell you while Dr. K runs some tests.”

Gemma lets Gem help her stand, leaning against him as they head down the stairs and to the lab. “You would’ve liked it, Gem,” she tells him.

“Maybe I’ll go there sometime,” he says, a smile in his voice.

Gemma closes her eyes. She hopes so.


End file.
